Words written fifty years ago, a hundred years ago, a thousand years ago, can have as much of this power today as ever they had it then to come alive for us and in us and to make us more alive within ourselves. That, I suppose, is the final mystery as well as the final power of words: that not even across great distances of time and space do they ever lose their capacity for becoming incarnate. And when these words tell of virtue and nobility, when they move us closer to that truth and gentleness of spirit by which we become fully human, the reading of them is sacramental; and a library is as a holy place as any temple is holy, because through the words which are treasured in it the Word itself becomes flesh again and again and dwells among us, full of grace and truth.
— Frederick Buechner, A Forgiving Heart by Lyn Klug, editor